


For the Occasion

by infernalemblem



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Chrobin Week 2018, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 11:23:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16304234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/infernalemblem/pseuds/infernalemblem
Summary: Someone thought it would be a good idea to organize a ball to celebrate the end of the war. Robin's not too keen on the idea.For Chrobin Week 2018 - Celebration





	For the Occasion

“I... “ Robin stared into space, vaguely horrified by a concept she had never bothered to consider. “I don’t think I’ve ever actually worn a dress before.”

Not that she could remember, at least. She’d been wearing pants since she’d woken up in that field, and since then it’s been ‘marching’ this and ‘war’ that, so it was a matter of practicality that she hadn’t bothered to make any additions to her wardrobe that she would only be able to wear in non-war situations. Frankly, she suspected part of the reason she’d adjusted so well to traveling simply because she’d never had anything else to compare it to.

“Oh?” Chrom’s stupid grin pulled her from her thoughts. “Well, neither have I.”

She shut her book. It’s not like she was going to get any reading done, anyway, not when Chrom had invaded her corner of the library to sit on the arm of her chair and talk about clothes, of all things.

“I swear to any gods listening, if you don’t wipe that smile off your face then I will find a way to make sure you’ll be the one waltzing out there in one of those things.”

She could probably manage it. Lissa would be willing to help, she’s sure.

“Come on, they’re not that bad.”

“If it’s not so bad, then you wear one.” Robin was almost exasperated enough to shout, but tried to keep her voice down. This was a library. Miriel was probably in here somewhere, and if she came along then Chrom would probably just throw her into the conversation to calculate the most scientifically appealing dressy something or other.

“...Look, I just thought I’d mention it. I’m probably not the right person to talk to about this, I don’t know very much about dresses. I’m sure Lissa would-”

“Lissa wears dresses into _battle_.” 

“That… is true. So-”

“ _So,_ ” she said, poking him in the arm, “I want you, as someone who also does not wear dresses, to explain to me why I should find a dress for this stupid ball. Why do I even need to go? I don’t know how to dance. Or who any of the people there are going to be.”

“It’s to celebrate the end of the war. We wouldn’t have won it without you, don’t you think you should be there?”

“No.” She briefly entertained the thought of shoving him off the chair entirely. Had he specifically chosen to talk to her here so she wouldn’t yell at him? “Look at me, Chrom. Can you really see me at a ball. Dancing. In a dress - gods, this isn’t about the time you said I wasn’t a lady, is it? Because I really didn’t care. You got all flustered, I wanted to mess with you.”

“It’s not - wait, you didn’t? I thought you were going to brain me with that big rock of yours.”

“It wasn’t that big of a rock.”

“Nowi has told me you can do terrifying things with rocks. I think the word she used was ‘incredible,’ but there was also a ‘murder’ thrown in there somewhere and she was saying it while brandishing an enormous dead snake, so I would still consider it an appropriate reaction.”

“...You do make a good point. Maybe I'd have even believed you, if we hadn’t met Nowi long after the incident in question.” The face he was making now almost exactly matched what she remembered of that day, actually... It was a fond memory. One that made her want to tease him again. “Are you planning to run away this time?”

“That depends on if you’re planning to throw that at me.” He pointed at her book.

She lifted it and tossed it in the air a couple times to test its weight, pretending to consider it, but set it back down on her lap. “...Maybe if we were still camping. I’d rather not find out what would happen if I assaulted you in your own castle.”

“It’s just a book, I wouldn’t exactly call it assault.”

“Is that permission?”

“No! I mean - no. Anyway. I would like to change the subject to something that does not involve things being thrown at me.”

“By all means. Any suggestions?”

“The ball.”

“I’m sure I could find one to throw at you, but I have a feeling that’s not what you’re talking about.”

“Very funny. ...Why don’t you want to go?”

“Some of the other Shepherds are going, right? And others aren’t. It sounded optional. Is there some reason that I’m supposed to?”

“Well, no, you don’t have to. Gods know I wouldn’t, if I had the choice. But I heard you weren’t planning to, and I was hoping for you to stop… not planning to. And go. If you’re okay with that.”

“Me… specifically.”

“Yes.”

“...Are you going to tell me why?” she asked, after several-second awkward staring contest.

“No - I mean, yes. I mean, I’d… I would appreciate it if you went? A lot. You don’t have to wear a dress or anything, that part’s not important, I just thought that maybe you might have wanted an opportunity to wear one, now that we’re not constantly in battle anymore. But I mostly just wanted you to be there. Because having you there will go a long way in helping me not go insane. And - I don’t know, you said you were concerned about me getting stabbed in the back, right? Politics is all about backstabbing. Some of it is, at least-”

She’d more or less meant that in the context of literal stabbing and he knew it.

Robin didn’t even bother to process the next few sentences that came out of his mouth. Just watched, and wondered why seeing him make a fool of himself like this made her want to smile more than anything had in days.

“Chrom.” She held up a hand to stop him. It would have been interesting to see how long he would have rambled on before stopping on his own, but she wasn't cruel.

“...Yes?”

“You’re very good at talking yourself into circles.”

He groaned and covered his face with his hands, far too late to hide how red it was getting. “It only happens around you, I swear. I’m normally much better at this.”

“This?”

“You know, talking.” He gestured vaguely in the air, still covering his face with one hand. “...To girls.”

“To girls,” she repeated.

“I didn't mean... Just…” He let out a long, dramatic sigh, and sat on the floor so he didn’t have to face her. “Will you please go with me? To the stupid... ball… thing.”

She stared at him, though it wasn’t very effective when he apparently thought that not looking at her would make him invisible. What was he, twelve?

“...With you, with you? Or in general?”

Wait.

Gods, was _she_ twelve? This was like a scene out of one of the novels Sumia had lent her. It felt ridiculous to ask, but she really needed clarification before things had a chance to get weird.

“...With me?” he said after a few seconds of silence. She had to peek over the arm of the chair to see that he was directly addressing where the bookshelf across from him intersected with the floor. “...If you want to.”

She has seen him kill people with far less effort than it took him to say that.

It was probably unfair that she wasn’t taking this as seriously as she should, she knew that. But the moment she started thinking of this as a real conversation that was actually happening and would affect more than the next five minutes, she was going to be more of a mess than he was. She’d like to at least put that off until she was alone in her room.

“Robin. Can you please say something before I explode.”

Putting it off may be difficult if she needed to respond. Uh. Crap. Okay, no, she was a hypocrite, this was definitely harder than killing people.

“...This ball isn’t just to celebrate the end of the war,” she said carefully. And frankly, she was almost startled by how steady her voice was, because wow did she not feel calm. “I think I’ve heard it called a, uh... thinly veiled plot to give every nobleman in Ylisse the chance to throw their daughters at you?”

“Lissa does enjoy calling it that, yes,” he deadpanned.

“Yet you’re asking me to go with you.”

“Yes.”

“Won’t that cause problems?”

“Don’t care.”

“Okay, but I feel like some people might take issue with me being there with you.”

“They shouldn’t, you’re amazing.”

"But-" Wait. He said it so similarly to everything else that she barely even processed the words, at first. And then she… did not know how to respond to that. How was she supposed to respond to that? “Chrom, I’m the gutter-born troglodyte you picked up off the side of the road.”

That was… a response, all right. It was a sentence. Not sure where it came from. Or - she knew where it was from, but-

"What?" He actually stood up and turned around to properly face her. “Who called you that?”

“No one,” she said quickly, because he’d gone from from mortified to looking ready to hunt down and punch someone in three seconds flat, and Robin still wasn’t entirely sure why she’d said it in the first place. As a joke? Not exactly as a joke, she’d just needed to… she didn’t know, restore some sort of cosmic balance. ‘Amazing’ was a bit extreme, wasn't it? “I heard Maribelle say it at some point. I’m not even sure what a troglodyte is, it just sounded like one of those things people might say behind someone’s back.”

“Well. Good. I think.” He relaxed somewhat. “But don’t say things like that about yourself.”

Somehow, he didn't seem as embarrassed anymore. But she was restraining herself from getting up and leaving to scream internally somewhere private, which probably meant she was losing. Something. Some kind of... gods, she didn't know. 

“Fine, fine,” she said, holding her hands up and speaking on autopilot as she tried to process what the hell was happening right now. She had come here to read. This was more stressful than reading. “I will refrain from needlessly insulting myself with words I don’t know the meaning of. But the side of the road thing is just for accuracy, you can’t stop me from saying that.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re - you don’t have to say it like it’s a bad thing, it’s just where you were when we met.”

“Maybe. But when we met, I was a person with no past. Whose only apparent skill was killing people effectively." She paused. "...And then you walked me right into the throne room before we’d known each other a full day. I still don’t understand why you thought that was a good idea.”

“Best decision I’ve ever made.”

“I am very concerned about your decision-making skills.”

He shrugged. “We’ve had this conversation before.”

“There was a very real chance that it could have been a huge mistake.”

“You're the best mistake I’ve ever made, then. Are you at any point planning to answer me?”

Not today. Not if she could help it.

"...The best mistake you've ever made, huh?" She raised an eyebrow. She knew what he meant, and she wasn't even sure she could realistically take that as an insult. But she also knew that she could absolutely drive him out of this room if she acted annoyed enough. 

"That's not - that came out wrong."

"Did it," she said flatly. On a whim, she tossed her book back up in the air and caught it by her head, waving it about as ominously as one could wave a novel titled  _Mad Tales of a Bloodthirsty Falcon Knight, Volume 4_. 

"Er, right." Chrom took a step back anyway. "Well. I'm late for... something. I should get going."

She let the book fall open in her hand. "I won't keep you, then," she said airily, leaning back in the chair to watch his retreat from over the random page she'd landed on. 

He would probably avoid her until tomorrow, so she had time to stay here a little while longer. There were only a couple chapters left in the volume, anyway. It wouldn't take her that long to finish.

In the meantime, maybe she should go ask Lissa about finding a dress...

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> For Chrobin Week 2018, day 1 - celebration  
> I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing, but this was fun to write.


End file.
